


A Curious Compartment

by DesertVixen



Category: La Barbe bleue | Bluebeard - Charles Perrault
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Curiosity, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24120433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: You know what they say about curiosity...
Comments: 15
Kudos: 13
Collections: Once Upon a Fic 2020





	A Curious Compartment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RobberBaroness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/gifts).



Everyone said it was a great assignment. Admiral Barber was one of the top commanders in the Space Fleet, and even though the space station his headquarters were located on was a bit off the main space lanes, Commander Catherine Lacy had been told it was an honor to work as his aide.

Repeatedly.

By people who weren’t on their way to the far reaches of charted space, Cat noted. 

By people who for some reason weren’t volunteering for the assignment. 

But declining the assignment wasn’t really an option for Commander Catherine Lacy, not with the stain in her record. 

As a young lieutenant, she’d been the communications officer aboard the _Celestial_ when the senior officers had mutinied. She had not been one of the instigators, but had pretended that she was ready to throw in with them when they broke into the bridge. That move had bought her time to send a distress signal to other ships in the sector. Despite the fact that her captain had commended her for her actions and quick thinking, Cat had noticed that she wasn’t exactly in demand. 

She could understand, really. The _Celestial_ was the only mutiny in seventy years, and no one wanted to have a reminder that mutiny was even an option on their bridge. So she had been shuffled around Headquarters, had even done a stint at the Academy. This was probably the best opportunity she was going to get.

Admiral Charles Barber had a distinguished record, but a mission in then-uncharted space had left him with horrible blue scars on both cheeks from an alien weapon. He had defeated their forces, but refused to have the scars removed. In an interview, he’d explained they were a valuable reminder to always keep his eyes open. Cat admitted they were a little…startling, but it seemed unprofessional to hold it against him.

The thing that really made Cat uneasy, however, was that she couldn’t seem to contact any of her predecessors. She had sent out messages, but it was as if they had simply disappeared into the void. A few of them seemed to have signed on to long-range exploration vessels, but others were simply gone. Maybe they had left the service. 

In the end, she had accepted the assignment. She wasn’t exactly overburdened with other choices.

*** 

Admiral Barber was actually relatively easy to work for. He was strict and demanding, but he was an admiral, and that was to be expected. The fact that they were on the border of uncharted space accounted for his demeanor, in Cat’s opinion – if something was to start out here on the edges, help might take some time to arrive. But he wasn’t stingy with praise, and Cat felt like she had found her rhythm.

It was the most luxurious set of quarters she had ever had, and the rest of the station was well-appointed. Barber had explained that if they did have company, it was best for them to see a display of wealth and power. There were powerful weapons as well, but they were hidden behind veneers, and Cat had wondered if perhaps he wasn’t trying to make the station look like a rather tempting target. Whatever his strategy was, Admiral Barber was not sharing the full picture with her.

So she was shocked when he informed her that he would be taking a tour through some of the outposts and leaving her in charge of the station. The admiral had given Cat the master codes, telling her that they would let her go anywhere on the station she needed to go.

Two weeks into his absence, however, Cat acknowledged that she was actually bored. The station staff did an excellent job of running the station, and didn’t need a stray commander sticking her nose into their business. At the same time, she couldn’t justify sitting around her quarters doing nothing. 

Finally, she decided that the best use of time would be to conduct surprise inspections. She had the master codes, and he could hardly disapprove of her working to enhance their readiness. Plus, the inspections were sort of fun, Cat admitted. 

Until she came to a compartment the master codes wouldn’t open. It was a small compartment near the power plant in the lowest levels of the station, but when she tried the code, nothing happened. The station crew was no help. Cat was further confused when she looked at the station schematic and didn’t see the compartment.

She had to know what was in the compartment. Her career in communications had taught her a little about access codes, and it wasn’t like she had any actual work to do.

It might even be fun.

*** 

It took her another week, with a little added pressure on the fifth day when she received a message from Admiral Barber that he expected to be back in three days. Once he was back, she would hardly have the time to spend on inspections – and would have to give back the master codes.

She held her breath as the modified code ran and this time – finally! – the door slid opened. 

Cat stepped inside and immediately wished she had not. The room was small, with large opaque tubes lining one wall. She stepped closer and realized that the tubes had names. Several of them seemed rather familiar.

The names of her predecessors.

She drew in a breath and stepped closer to the tubes, studying the readouts at the bottom. They seemed like life-sign readings, but they also seemed…strange. She wasn’t a science specialist, but the life-signs seemed to indicate that whatever was in the tubes seemed to be in some sort of suspended animation.

Cat’s instincts screamed at her to turn, to run, but when she did turn around, Admiral Barber stood in front of the door.

“Commander Lacy,” he said, shaking his head sadly, “I am afraid your curiosity got the better of you. I did not give you the code for this compartment.”

“No,” she said softly. “I was conducting inspections.”

“I gave you all the codes you would need,” he told her. “Although you have been the fastest person to break the code to get in. There was no need, you know. I would have eventually brought you down here.”

A shiver chased along her spine. “You would have?”

“Oh yes. You would have eventually joined these ladies. They’re not dead. They’re merely taking part in an exploration experiment. They are walking among distant stars. And so, now will you.”

Cat backed away, until she was trapped between him and one of the tubes. She saw the flash of a hypo in his hand and tried to move away, but there was nowhere to run to.

When she lay at his feet, Admiral Barber shook his head again. It was a shame. Commander Lacy would no doubt be as brilliant in the exploration experiment, but now he had to search for another aide who would meet his requirements.

An aide that no one would miss, except for him.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like it!
> 
> I really liked both of your AU prompts, but the detective one was giving me fits. So I decided to try Bluebeard in SPAAAAACE, but it makes more sense for him to be the Admiral. I hope you enjoy the atmosphere!


End file.
